Things Aren't Always as They Seem
by OnlyNic313
Summary: A tough case brings back a lot of feelings for Sara. Cath/Sara evenutally. I'm taking a shot at working with a plot. I suck at summarys, so read and let me know what you think. Femm Slash, so if girl on girl isn't ur thing, this isn't the story for you.
1. Chapter 1

Things Aren't Always as They Seem

I do not own CSI or any of their characters. If I did, there would be a lot of hot Cath/Sara moments. I do own my own characters though :-)

If You can't tell this will have femslash, so if it's not your thing don't waste your time.

In my story Sara and Grissom never left. Though Warrick did die. This will eventually get to Cath and Sara hooking up. There is talk of physical, mental and sexual abuse. All mistakes are my own. English was never my best subject. But I hope you like, please feel free to send suggestions, tell me if you like it, hate it. This is my first story with an actual plot, so I hope it doesn't suck too bad.

I already have a few chapters wrote, so hopefully i'll be updating weekly if not more. I'd also like to thank my 'special someone' for making me feel like i can actually write. :-) Mwah.

Chapter 1

Catherine hurriedly entered the lab, thinking she was late to her shift after having another argument with Lindsey about not being allowed to go out of town this weekend with a group of her friends.

_As long as I still have some say, I'm going to keep her as safe as i can. _

She rounded the corner and slowed down upon seeing Nick and Greg in the break room, sitting at the table, with Sara sitting on the couch by herself. _Guess I'm not as late as I thought._

"Hey Catherine, Griss went to get our slips, he wants us just to wait for him in here so he doesn't have to come hunt us down" Greg informed her as she got herself some coffee and took a seat on the couch beside Sara.

Nick and Greg went back to talking to one another, Catherine was still going over her fight with Linds in her head, while Sara silently drank her coffee wishing she would have got more sleep before shift.

"Ok guys we don't have much tonight, so Nick you get a B&E at Mandalay Bay. Cath, Sara and Greg, I don't have the details yet, but Brass said to send at least two, but since it's slow I figured I'd send three of you. You're meeting him down in Henderson, the location is on the slip." Grissom told his team, giving one slip to Nick, as Catherine got up to take the other one from him.

"And Ecklie told me if i don't catch up on my paper work i wont be going to the conference on the Integrated Control of Scolytid Bark Beetles." You could see him dreaming about his bugs before he left the break room heading for his office.

As Catherine, Sara and Greg finally made there way to the scene they saw a rather large house with police cars lining the drive way. It wasn't a mansion of any sort, but what looked to be maybe a farm house redone and updated.

"It's a good thing we've got GPS now, there is no way I'd ever of found this place without it." Sara spoke as she pulled into the drive way. She parked and they all got out, grabbed their cases from the back and made their way over to Brass who was standing near the porch waiting for them to get to him.

"Well we've got a messy and confusing one. A call came into 911 about an hour ago at 8:00pm, from the the youngest girl, Casandra" He motioned his head towards a group who were all huddled together, crying.

"On the call Casandra, said that Nathan had killed himself and that a Christine was bleeding and that they needed help. The call was dropped, but once the paramedics arrived both, the boy, Nathan who was 12 and Christine, 39, who was his mother were DOA. There is a lot of blood and Doc is waiting for you before entering. I talked to Casandra's mother, Patty and she said that the boy killed his mother and then himself. Patty's son, Johnny said the same thing as did his sister. Christine's daughter and Nathans older sister, Danielle, just got here a few minutes ago. They have all been a mess. I'm really not getting much from them, I think it'd be easier if we just separate them for now, take them down to the lab, let you do your thing, then interview each of them?" Brass asked them with an exasperated look.

Catherine paused for a moment to take in all of what he'd just said, it didn't seem that confusing to her, so perhaps she'd missed something. She looked over at the group Brass had motioned to once more to get everything set in her head.

_Ok so the vics are Christine and her son Nathan, it appears to be a murder suicide. I'm going to guess the oldest looking teen in the group is Danielle, Christine's daughter and Nathans sister. She looks like she's about 17, the same age as Lindsey, that poor girl must be going through hell right now._

She then took in the other teens in the group. _Ok the boy must be Johnny he looks like he might be about the same age as Danielle, if not a bit younger, and then his sister Casandra, who looks to be around 14 or 15. Both of the teens seem to be trying their best to console Danielle. Which left Patty. She seemed to be keeping her distance from Danielle, but staying __close to her own children. Everyone had some kind of blood on them, but Patty appeared to have more on her than the others. _

Catherine turned back to ask Brass a few questions, and saw that Sara must of been getting all the details straight in her mind as well. After a moment Sara nodded towards Catherine letting her know she could ask her questions first.

"Jim who is it that lives here exactly? Is this Christine's or Patty's home?"

"According to Patty they both live here. Something about the house being big enough for everyone to have their own rooms and it being easier to help each other out with the kids."

"I wish I had a friend like that, it'd be easier than relying on my sister and hearing my mother complain whenever I need her help." Catherine said with a bit of laughter to her voice. Her attention went to Sara to let her know to go ahead with any questions she might have.

"Does Danielle have any family we can call to be with her right now? I mean she did loose her mother and her brother."

"Patty had mentioned that the only family Danielle had had died tonight. So, we'll call social services or something once we get back to the lab, Patty did mention that she'd like the girl to be able to stay with her and her kids, but we'll see what the social worker has to say."

"Alright Greg they are going to need processed, so why don't you get as many pictures of them as you can, collect their clothing and any evidence on them. If you want you can ride back to the lab with one of the officers to get started on all that evidence, while Sara and I take the House." Catherine nodded towards Greg as he picked up his case to go start processing the 'family'.

"Jim, Sara and I are going to head in, we'll call you when we are headed back to the lab."

With that Sara grabbed her case and headed to the door, she couldn't help but look at Danielle again. There was something about the way the girl looked that reminded her of herself when she was younger. The fitted leather coat, dark hair, and she could tell the girl wasn't into tanning. She caught the girls eye and could see that she had the same hurt and haunted look she had herself growing up with.

Sara shook her head and went through the door. As soon as she was through the door she could smell the iron, there was a lot of blood somewhere in this house. This was going to be a hard one for her. Even though domestic abuse was completely out of the question, seeing that girl, Danielle, it brought back some of her own demons.

Catherine reached out grabbing Sara's arm to stop her from stepping onto a bloody shoe print.

"Whoa, there Sara, we are suppose to collect the evidence not track through it." She wasn't trying to put Sara down and hoped Sara realized that, as Sara spun around Catherine could see something in Sara's eyes that seemed a little off. Sara looked down to see several bloody footprints.

"Sorry, Catherine.. I uh, didn't get much sleep before shift." She knew Cath wasn't trying to fight with her. They for the most part have learned to get a long with each other and they both knew they made a great team when they worked together.

"If ya want I can see if Gil can come out, I know he'd love an excuse to get away from that paperwork."

"It's ok, I'm awake now, on top of my game, good to go, see" Sara said with an over abundant amount of enthusiasm while she bounced up and down on her feet a couple times to get the point across. "no worries kay?"

"Mmmk, lets get started, by the look of the bloody footprints in here it may take a while."

With that they both started their long task of collecting evidence, making their way to the bodies. Catherine took one path of bloody footprints up the stairs, while Sara followed others through the kitchen, into the living room, pausing to look at the pictures displayed around the room.

She could see all the kids and both mothers in the pictures, it looked like they had all been together for quit a while. Above the couch was what appeared to be the school photo's for each of the kids with the exception of Danielle, it looked like there had been a spot for her photo, but it'd be taken down. Glancing around to the other pictures throughout the room you could see the kids goofing around with each other and wearing weird smiles and there even appeared to be a few professional pictures of both families together. They all looked so happy and Sara felt a ping of jealousy, what she would've given for just one week in a home like this when she was a teenager. And then she realized this 'family' would never again be the same and her jealousy turned into sadness.

Catherine made her way up the stairs and followed the footprint's into what appeared to be Christine's room, her body on the floor and blood splatter covering the bed, dresser and walls. This had been a horribly brutal stabbing. She started photographing every blood splatter and shoe impression hoping it might shed some light on just what went on in this room.

Sara had continued out of the living room after photographing a few of the pictures and kept following the bloodied footprints. She eventually found herself at the top of another stair case, at the other end of the house in Nathan's bedroom. She had to remind herself to focus on the crime scene and not of the young boy who laid dead on the bed in front of her. The room itself wasn't too big, but it wasn't too small either. There was a hockey stick and a bowling ball in the corner, a desk and a dresser. She went to the dressing opening each drawer and taking a photo before going to the next one. He didn't have many pictures in his room, but those that he did were mostly of him and his sister, Danielle.

Going over to the desk she saw an open notebook with a blank page and a pen. Aside from that the desk was empty. Deciding it was time she focused on the boy. The position of his body indicated that he had been sitting on the side of his bed when he shot himself on the right side of his head. The gun was still in his right hand and off to the left of the body was a bloody knife. There appeared to be some kind of square shaped void in the blood, she noted that and took pictures before bagged and tagged the knife. After she finished up in the room she asked the officer that was standing at the top of the stairs if he'd go get the doc to start on the boys body while she went into the room across from Nathan's.

There weren't any bloody footprint's leading into the room and when she opened the door she saw a rather drab room. There were only two pictures on the night stand, one of Patty and her kids and one of just her kids. Sara also noted the dust around the picture and photographed it along with the room that was in perfect order. There was something off about the room, but she just couldn't put her finger on it. With one last look around she went back to the hallway, moving to the room next to Nathan's.

Large bold signs with "Stay Away" and "Do Not Enter" were taped to the door. It was a pretty large room and looked like a typical male teens room, so it must be Johnny's. The full size bed wasn't made and there were a couple pairs of jeans and shirts on the floor, but still very organized and clean for a teen. She noted the nice tv and sound system with multiple game consoles scattered on the floor in front of the tv, with a laptop sitting beside all of it. Checking out the closet she was very impressed with the size of it. It was packed full of shirts, shoes and jeans. She took a couple pictures before once again moving to the hallway.

Catherine had finally finished taking as many photo's as she could of Christine's room. She figured they'd probably need to use the labs new 3D scene program to get a good idea of how everything happened and you need lots of overlapping photographs in order for it to work correctly. Catherine really hadn't been able to come up with the crime in her head, though she did notice a void in the blood splatter on the bed and was sure to collect the sheets and print the room. She left the room to get Robbins and saw him entering a room at the other end of the house, so she carefully headed down the hall taking pictures of all the bloody footprint's. _Sorting all these out are going to be a pain in the ass. I sure hope Sara is up for this tonight._

"Catherine" Sara said softly alerting her to her presence. "How many rooms do you have done?"

"I only have Christine's done, there was a lot of blood, so I'm hoping we can use our 3D program to get a picture of what happened. How about you?"

"I've processed the Nathan's room, Patty's and I just got done with Johnny's. The only room that had blood in it was Nathan's and I found the gun in his right hand, and a bloody knife to the left of his body. Patty's room was a bit odd, I'm not sure why exactly, I just thought there was something off about it, maybe you could take a look, see if it comes to you?" Catherine nodded her head and followed Sara to Patty's room.

After looking around a bit Catherine shook her head "it looks normal to me, a little plain for my tastes, but nothing weird about it."

"I must just be having an off night." _I can't wait to get back to the lab and get some more coffee in me_. "I think Doc is in with Nathan right now, we can both go in there and then split the last two rooms then head to the lab?" Sara didn't wait for an answer and instead headed to Nathan's room with Catherine behind her.

Catherine paused at the door when she first saw the boy, she knew they had a dead 12 year old boy here and yet seeing him made her stop. He looked so young, so innocent.

"Well ladies this one is pretty simple, gun shot wound to the head. When I get back to the lab I'll do a full work up, but for now that's all I have on the boy" he said while motioning to his assistant to get the boys body ready for transportation. "Oh and he has been dead for at least 7 hours. Would one of you like to show me to the other body?"

Sara was turning to head out of the room before she swung back around to face the doc. "Wait, 7 hours? Are you sure? Jim said the 911 call came in at 8pm," Sara checked her watch "and it's almost midnight, so the boy was dead 4 hours before we came? And no one noticed." Sara asked Robbins expectantly.

"Look all I can tell you is the boy has been dead for at least 7 hours. Now the next body please, I'd like to get them back to the lab sometime tonight."

Catherine motioned for him to follow her and soon after they had left Sara went down to the room to find out about Christine's body.

"I'm going to go with death by a sharp object, there is too much blood on her now to know for sure which stab killed her" he lifted up her arms to take a closer look "but I do see lots of defensive wounds on her hands and arms, she put up quit a fight. Now onto liver temp" with that he stuck a special thermometer into the woman's stomach "hmm, let's see, she's been dead for a little over 3 hours... I thought they said the boy killed his mother first and then himself?"

"Yeah, that's what Jim said, I guess this isn't a simple murder, suicide anymore. It's going to be a very long night" Catherine glanced at her watch, they hadn't been there too long, but she wanted to get back to the lab so they could start piecing together the evidence. "If that's all Doc, Sara and I have two more rooms to finish up and then we'll meet you back at the lab to get the full reports."

"Sounds good to me" he looked past Catherine and Sara to his assistant in the hallway "do you need a special invitation or are you going to get in here and help me get this body back to the lab" he shook his head in a disgusted, yet amused sort of way "new guys are always lingering about, they never come in to help, noo... you have to tell them to come in and then remind them of what it is they are suppose to be doing."

Catherine turned and started out, with Sara once again right behind her. "How about I take this room" Catherine pointed to the room beside Christine's "and you can take that one over there?", she said pointing to the last door on the other side of the hall that was beside the bathroom. Sara just nodded and headed into said room.

It was a dark room. The curtains weren't open, the paint could've been a purple or a blue, she wasn't sure, she liked seeing a room how it was left before turning on the lights. And at this moment the only thing lighting the room was the lamp beside the bed. This had to be Danielle's bedroom.

There was a mirror on the floor with hair products and make up spread around it. _I suppose in a house with six people and only two bathrooms you don't get much mirror or bathroom time. _She slowly walked around the room taking pictures of everything and taking in as much information as she could get by looking at the bedroom. The full sized bed was made with a closed computer sitting near the head of the bed. Books were piled up around the small desk and beside the bed. There were a couple photographs tucked into the mirror on the dresser, they were of her and her brother and what looked to be another friend her age. She had a few more framed photo's of her, Casandra, Johnny and Nathan. And one with everyone from the household in it. She couldn't help but notice once again that they all had smiles, real smiles, not fake one's you put on when you get your picture taken. If there was one thing Sara has learned over the years it was to be able to see the fake smiles.

She strode over to the bed and noticed several pill bottles sitting on the nightstand, upon opening the drawer she found several more in a large zip-locked baggy. The only one's she recognized was the folic acid and a anti-depressant. Checking the dosage on the folic acid made lights go off in her head. _I'm pretty sure only pregnant woman tend to take this dosage, 17 and pregnant, and she just lost her mother and brother. This girl is going to have to be pretty damn strong to survive all this. _Sara grabbed the medications and put them in a bag figuring the girl would probably need it seeing as most said take twice a day. With the meds in hand she stepped out of that bedroom and headed towards the room Catherine had said she'd take.

The last room was Casandra's, her name was on the door in big bubbly cut out letters. It looked very neat and organized, with pictures and posters all over the walls. Everything was very pink, but not a 3 year old girl pink, but a young teenager pink. The full sized bed was made, with a few stuffed animals. She had a small desk in the corner with a laptop opened up and books around it, upon closer inspection Sara could see she was in the middle of an English assignment when everything started.

Catherine was taking pictures of the nice entertainment center loaded with 'chic flicks'. As she looked around it reminded her very much of what Linds' room used to look like.. minus the entertainment center. She opened the closet to see lots of very expensive brand clothing. Clothing brands her and Lindsey usually fought over because of the prices. _I will never understand why some parents spend so much money on clothing that a young teen like this is going to outgrow in less than a year._

"So do you think we are looking at a double homicide or do you think Nathan killed himself?" Catherine asked as she took a couple last pictures before heading out of the bedroom and down the hall retracing Sara's steps. She wanted to take in each of the rooms herself before they headed back to the lab.

"Well, I didn't find a note, at the time I was thinking he'd killed his mother, so I took that as the reason for killing himself. Now we know that isn't the case. I did find a small square void in his blood, but it was too small to have been a letter of any kind." She said as they entered Nathans room one last time. Sara showed Catherine the void, which had been left untouched by the coroner.

"I found a void in the blood in Christine's room too, but it was the size of a piece of paper, definitely not this small" she pointed towards the void "ya know that looks about the size of a ring box... or a folded up note, I've found plenty of those in Lindsey's jeans over the years" Catherine informed her while moving over to the the desk. "Why don't we take this empty notebook, maybe whatever he wrote last will shed some light on everything.".

Sara followed Catherine out of the room and back down the stairs, pausing while Catherine took in all the pictures in the living room. "Catherine, something went very wrong with this...umm.." She tried to think of a word to describe the two meshed families. "family? This isn't like most families who just look happy, I mean these pictures show that they were all very much happy and now two of them are dead. And the boy had been dead since at least 5 this afternoon and no one noticed till 8pm."

Catherine watched Sara shake her head and turn to leave heading for the door. _Sara has always had her off moments, but this case is really getting to her. I just don't get why. I mean I know that she had and at times has issues with domestic abuse, but like she said, this was a happy family until tonight, so why is this one so different for her? I hope when we talk to everyone we can put the pieces together and end this case quickly. Cuz, I am so not ready to take ten steps back with Sara, we've actually become friends. We got out to eat, catch a movie and she's always good about asking Linds if she wants to join us. It's nice having a friend who is a girl._

As Catherine made her way towards the Tahoe, she smiled at all the good memories her and Sara had the last few years. Grabbing her phone, she called Brass. "Jim, hey it's Catherine, yeah we just finished processing the house" She jumped in the passenger side seat while, Sara started it up heading back to the lab. "The boy died around 5pm, and the mother died around 8pm, so there is no way the boy killed his mother first... No we still don't know for sure if he killed himself, when we get back to the lab doc will have more for us, can you wait to start the interview's with everyone until we get back?... Ok We'll see you in a bit then." With that Catherine hung up her phone and started going over everything in her head again as they drove back to the lab in silence.


	2. Chapter 2

I really didn't do a lot of research, so i'm sure some of the law is off and the science takes longer than what I had it happen along with other things. Please don't hate me for it. Just go with it. I also have no betta, so all mistakes are my own :-)

Thank you to those of you who reviewed. I'd love more input. Did you like it, did you hate it? Let me know. Also do you think my chapters are too short? It seems to be easier for me to put out around 4,000 words. But i'm worried u guys don't like them so short.

Also my grandmother just passed away this weekend, so please stick with me, I promise I will continue this story until it is done.

I don't own anything except my own characters :-)

Chapter 2

After dropping the evidence off to the right people in the lab Catherine and Sara went to meet up with Brass. He said that Greg had processed all of the clothing and that Doc was about finished up with the second autopsy, so to go check in with him, then meet him back there to question everyone. With that they headed down to the morgue.

"Ok Doc tell us you have something that might help us." Catherine asked walking into the room.

"Christine was stabbed over 20 times. With multiple defensive wounds. It was brutal. From what I can tell she was alive for a while after the initial two stabs. It appears as though she was stabbed twice in the lower abdomen, they showed much further signs of clotting then the rest of the wounds. She had major internal bleeding, but the fatal blow was to her right subclavical artery. It was a bleeder, but whoever was stabbing her, kept going even after she was dead." Doc kept cleaning her up and taking pictures, momentarily lost in his own thoughts.

"And the boy?" Sara asked him bringing him out of his head and back to woman.

"First off Nathan did have gun powder residue on his right hand, and if you'll come over here" grabbing his cane he walked over to Nathans body "he had extensive bruising to his shoulders and arms." Both woman could see the horrible bruises and as Doc rolled the body they could see many more on his back and between his thighs. "I did a sexual assault kit and sent it up to the lab. And from the trauma it's been going on for a while." Taking off his glasses he rubbed his eyes before putting them back on. "No matter how many people lay on this table, seeing a child here will never get easier." He shook his head and went over to finish Christine's body, while Catherine and Sara left the morgue.

They met up with Brass, looking into the interrogation room. "So, ladies what's the evidence telling you so far."

"Well the boy shows signs of sexual assault, he had GSR on his right hand where the gun was found, so unless we find something to show us otherwise, it appears that he did kill himself. As for the mother, she was murdered, so right now, we need to focus on that. The boy had been dead for at least five hours before anyone called 911, and the mother had died shortly after the call was placed. So, their story that the boy killed his mother isn't true." Catherine glanced into the room where Patty was sitting, she had been the one with the most blood on her. "I'm going to see if they have all my photo's uploaded, and check with Greg on matching up some of the bloodied footprint's to the shoes he collected from the family."She turned to look at Sara. " Unless you'd rather do that and I can sit in on the interview's with Jim?"

Sara was taken by surprise with Catherine giving her the option of what she wanted to do. That wasn't Catherine's style, Cath gave orders and directed people. _I guess she's having an off night too._ "No that sounds good to me, I'll go get these started while you work with Greg, let me know if you guys find anything." Catherine nodded her head and went looking for Greg.

"Why are Patty and her kids in the room together?"Sara asked, wondering where Danielle was.

Jim took a deep breath "Patty didn't want her kids questioned without her present. So, until we find out she's lying to us about something, she has to be there when anyone talks to either of her kids. But if for some reason she's doing something that's holding her kids back we'll bring in a guardian ad litemto sit in with them. If you want I'll go in and let them know, that we know, that the boy didn't kill his mother, see if they fess up? And you can go let Danielle know what we have so far. She's been sitting in the waiting area by herself since we all got back."

Sara nodded and was on her way. She remembered she still had the girls medications in a bag, but decided to wait until later to get them. As she rounded the corner for the waiting room she stopped when she saw her. Danielle was sitting in one of those uncomfortable orange chairs. _Hmm... that poor girl has been through so much. And now she's stuck in the waiting room.._ She grabbed her phone from her pocket and text'd Catherine asking if it were ok for her to use her office. A few seconds later she get a 'yes'.

Sara approached the young woman slowly taking her in. Her head was down, looking into the drink she was holding. In the light she could see she had a reddish tint to her dark hair, it looked a few shades darker than auburn, it was kind of longer, the cut actually reminded her of Catherine's. Still in her own clothing, Sara could see why Greg didn't collect it, she really had no blood on her except for a smudge or two. "Danielle?" The teen raised her eyes to meet Sara's . "Hi, my name is Sara Sidle, I'm a CSI. Would you like to come with me? I've got a place more comfortable where we can talk?" The girl only nodded her head letting Sara lead her out of the waiting room and down the hall to Catherine's office.

Sara gestured towards the couch, closing the door and grabbing one of Catherine's chairs swinging it over to sit across from the girl. "I know you've already had a very long day, but is it ok if I ask you a few questions?" Sara gently asked and was once again answered with just a nod, but the girl was looking at her finally. Sara scooted her chair to be closer to the girl, knowing the questions she had to ask weren't going to be easy. Danielle wasn't to keen on people being too close to her, but didn't have the energy to move.

"Ok, can you take me through your day first, starting from when you woke up?" Sara knew she'd have to tell Danielle about her brother killing himself, but was hoping to get some details first. Danielle made real eye contact with Sara, for the first time and Sara was a bit taken back by the piercing green eyes she saw.

"I got up about 5am. If I want to get a shower in the morning that's my time slot. Then I woke Nate up after I was finished" Sara stopped her to confirm that she was talking about her brother Nathan, you just never know with the details. "While he took his shower and got ready, I went to my room to do my hair and makeup, then we both had breakfast together, while everyone else started their morning. Case, Casandra, came down right before Nate and I left for school. I had to drop him off at the rink at about 6:30, so he could practice some hockey drills before school. He seemed fine..i..i talked to him... we.. we" Sara put a hand on the girls leg to stop her and console her at the same time.

"It's ok, we'll come back to that part, what did you do after you dropped him off?" Sara probed gently sitting back in her chair.

"I had to go to morning detention, so went to school to do that, then I had school till 3:15. I usually hang out around after school for a while, even if I don't have after school detention, so I can drive Nate home after his practice, but this year Johnny said he'd take care of it, so I could enjoy my senior year. Ya know, go out with my friends, do the senior class play, not have to play 'mother'." Danielle's eyes filling with tears before they silently started rolling from both eyes.

"So, I went to rehearsal until a little after 6 before going back to my" Danielle paused for a moment, which didn't go unnoticed by Sara. "friends house... to work on homework. I left there when Case called me, telling me to come home right away. She didn't even say why, she never has to say why, so I jumped in my car and went home right away. By the time I got home there were police cars in the driveway, I saw all of them standing out side covered in blood, but... my mom,... my brother, my baby brother, they weren't out there. The police wouldn't let me go in, they just said it's too late, that they were sorry!" Danielle started to get up but Sara stopped her by grabbing her in a hug to hold the teen, sitting them both on the couch. Sara just let the girl hold on to her while she cried.

Once Danielle started to calm down a bit she removed herself from Sara and scooted away a bit, while wiping away the tears from her face. Sara got up to give the girl some room and got a box of Kleenex from Catherine's desk. "Danielle, did Patty, Casandra or Johnny say anything to you when you got there?" Sara offered her the Kleenex and sat back down in her chair.

"Please just call me Dani, and yes they told me what happened." Dani made air quotes with her fingers when she said 'what happened'. "Patty told me Nate killed mom, that they had tried to get him to stop but couldn't and that he went to his room and shot himself afterwords. But I'm telling you right now that Nate did not kill our mother. Sure she wasn't the best mom, but Nate... Nate would never hurt another person. And I'm sure you're going to say we don't always know what goes on in the minds of others, but I swear on my own life, that my brother did not kill mom."

"Dani, it's ok, we know he didn't kill her." Sara could see some relief in the teens eyes

" Would Nate of killed himself?" And just as quickly as the relief came, it went and was replaced with a look of regret.

"If you'd of asked me that question five months ago, I'd of said you were freakin crazy, but something happened to him. I don't know what, he wouldn't tell me. I asked him so many times, in so many ways, but each time he'd tell me I was nuts, or that I needed to stop mothering him, or he'd start joking with me or he'd just change the subject. I wasn't his mom, I tried to tell our mom that something was wrong with him and she'd tell me that he was just being a preteen, not to worry about it. I told her and she never freakin would listen to me!" Dani started raising her voice again.

Sara knew the up and down emotions were normal, but she couldn't help but feel bad for Dani. _I've got to focus on the case. I need to finish up here and meet Cath, I need to get my crap together!_ "Can you tell me who might of wanted your mother dead, did she have any ex's, or was she being harassed by anyone?"

"Umm, well, not that I know of, me and mom aren't" A lone tear fell down Danielle's cheek when she realized she had used the wrong term when talking about her mom. "Weren't... we weren't close." With a change in her tone to nothing but disgust she gently said " Ask Patty, she'd know."

Sara was a bit taken back by the anger Danielle had in her voice. "Did you and Patty have problems"

"We used to, now she stays out of my way, I stay out of her's and we all get along like a nice happy family should."

"So, you weren't really a happy family?"

"Look, if you want to ask someone about our" she put her hands up adding air quotes "family" letting her hands drop again. "ask Patty."

"Ok, I'll do that. I found the medications in your room, can I ask what they are for?"

"I don't see what business it is of yours, so no. If for some reason I felt it'd help find out who killed my mom I'd tell you, but I know it doesn't, so I'd rather not tell you." Dani wasn't trying to be difficult, but she hated dealing with people once she told them what the medication was for.

Sara sat forward in her chair looking at the teen "If your pregnant you can tell me, I wont tell anyone unless I have to." She offered gently.

"Ha! You've so got to be kidding me, right?" She saw the seriousness on Sara's face before it clicked. "Let me guess Miss CSI, you saw the folic acid?" This time she saw confusion on Sara's face and it made her smile to herself. "Mm hmm, yes well there are other reasons to be put on that aside from being pregnant."

"Seriously, I'm a senior in a high school where chics get knocked up all the time. I don't want kids till I can take care of them. Plus I'm on birth control, not that I take that med for said purpose. I can guarantee you that there is no way what-so-ever that I could be remotely pregnant. But I do need to take that pill along with the others, I was suppose to take them hours ago and I don't like missing a dose, can you get them for me?" She raised her eyebrow questioning the older woman.

"I can, it will be a few minutes though, I need to go check in with some of my team members. You can stay in here if you'd like, as long as you promise not to touch anything, or you can go back to the waiting room, it's up to you?" Sara really hoped Catherine wouldn't mind her letting the girl stay in there for a few minutes while she went and checked on a few things.

"If I can't leave yet, I'd rather just stay in here... and yes, before you ask, I promise I wont touch anything.

With that Sara left, leaving the door open on her way out, hoping to deter the teen from going through Catherine's stuff.

She walked into Hodges lab, hoping he'd done what she asked earlier.

"Hey remember those medications I dropped off and asked you to find out what they were for?"

"What, no hello, how are you?... Right. Ok, well the first one the folic acid" Sara couldn't help but roll her eyes, knowing what he was going to say. "is usually used for woman who are pregnant, however, I don't think that's the case because this other one, Cyclosplorine, is used for people who have had organ transplants, and you cannot be pregnant while on this medication. Now on to the mental meds, Effexor is an anti depressant or mood stabilizer, Xanax, well we all know what Xanax is, it's a relaxer pill used for many different things, this one" He said grabbing the bottle. "Lorazapam, is just like Xanax, but a little different, I'm not sure why anyone would be on both at the same time, but Danielle is because her name is on both bottles. She also takes an anti-psychotic, Seroquel and some good old Penicillin and if you don't know what that is I'm not telling you."

"She's on some nice pain meds too. Have you talked to this girl, can she even stand up straight?" Sara just rolled her eyes motioning him to continue with the last couple. "She's on some Oxy, which I'd say is her downer, and some Hydro, which I'd say is her upper. And the last medication is Seasonal, birth control. I counted all the medications and the right amount is missing from every bottle according to when they were filled. So, is this girl crazy? Or some kind of drug seller? Did I once again solve the case for you?" Hodges said being his arrogant self. But Sara really wasn't in the mood for it tonight.

Sara was having a hard enough time on the case, as it was, without Hodges pissing her off. He made a mistake by talking badly about the girl and Sara had the words out of her mouth before she even realized what she was doing. "No, Hodges. The girl as you put it is not crazy, nor do I think she sells her meds. She did however loose both her mother and brother tonight, she has no other family and from all those meds you just told me about, I'd say she's pretty screwed. So, why don't you take that microscope of yours and stick.."

"SARA!. My Office now!" Catherine stopped Sara before she could finish telling him where to stick it, but she calmed down right away, knowing they couldn't go to her office for this little 'tiff'.

"Wait, Cath, I'm sorry." Sara got the other woman to stop and turn around to look at her. "And we can't exactly go to your office for you to yell at me, right now anyway." Sara said with the sound of each word getting softer.

"And why exactly is it that we can't go to my office?" Cath put both of her hands on her hips and tilted her head wondering what was going on.

"Well, Dani... I mean Danielle is in there waiting for me to come back with her medications, so she can take them. Don't worry I left your office door open so she wouldn't go through your stuff, I just didn't want to send her back to the waiting room again." She was pleading with Catherine, she knew she wasn't handling herself very well tonight, but they were suppose to be friends now, so hopefully Cath would actually try and understand.

Catherine wasn't going to press the issue right now, as long as Sara agreed to her terms. "Ok, Well I wasn't expecting that, if I drop this, for right now, will you agree to come to my house after shift for breakfast to talk? I'd like to see Lindsey before she heads off to school, otherwise I'd say we could just go to a diner."

"That sounds like a deal I can't pass up." Sara said smiling at Catherine. "So, what have you got on the case?" She asked while heading for Catherine's office to give Dani.. Danielle her medications.

"I've got Archie uploading all the pictures from Christine's room, he said it'll take a few hours for the 3D program to have the reenactment ready. Greg is going over the footprint's and matching them up with the families shoes. He already got finger prints from everyone, and he matched one of their prints, to one's he got off the knife..." Catherine gave Sara an amused look, knowing the pause would drive her just a little insane. " And the matching prints go too… Johnny. Now we just need to go talk to Brass and let him know then we should be able to get this case wrapped up." She stopped the conversation as they rounded the corner for her office, not wanting the girl to overhear.

"Danielle, this is Catherine, another CSI" Sara said offering the girl her medications. And the girl looked at her meds and was about to ask for water, but Sara beat her too it. "Right, water, I'll be right back." Sara moved quickly out of the room leaving Catherine and Danielle.

Catherine noticed how Sara was acting around the girl and it really puzzled her. "I heard one of our lab techs tell Sara that one of those medication's is used for people who have had an organ transplant." Danielle responded by just looking up at the woman and rolling her eyes. "Ok, so I've seen my daughter give me that same look, so I know I'm not right. Care to tell me what it is for?"

"No I wouldn't. I would like someone to tell me exactly what happened to my mother and brother though."

Sara came back through the door before Catherine could answer. "We still have to check on a few more things before we can tell you anything." Handing Dani the bottle of water she walked over to stand by Cath in front of her desk. "Do you need anything else while you wait?" Dani just shook her head as she methodically went through her meds taking out the ones she needed, placing all of them in one hand before putting all the pills in her mouth and swallowing them with the water. Sara watched the girl before heading for the door. Catherine paused at the door though, taking in the teen.

"We shouldn't be too long, You can lay down on the couch if you'd like, I can turn my lights out and close the door?" Danielle simply nodded while laying down curling on her side facing the door. _She reminds me of what Sara's daughter would look and act like, if Sara had a daughter. I wonder if this girl has the demons Sara has... if she didn't she will after loosing her mom and brother._

Catherine went back in grabbing the blanket off the back of the couch before throwing it over the girl, she turned to, turn off the light and close the door when she heard a soft "thank you" whispered. _Just like Sara..._

Sara filled Catherine and Brass in on what Danielle had told her. When Wendy walked up to them.

"Ok, I thought they were suppose to be just two families living together, because I'm thinking there was something kinky going on. When I processed the sheets from Christine's room, I found two fluid donors, one was Christine's... the other was from another person in the house." She paused, looking up to see if she had everyone's attention and to make sure she could see the look on their faces when she told them.

"It was Patty's. So, they were doing more than just sharing a house." Wendy handed over the folder with the information in it and left them all there to digest what she just said.

"Well, that explains why Patty's room looked odd...she probably never slept in there and that might be why Dani got upset when I asked her about having a happy family." Sara said while things came together.

"But why keep it a big secret, I mean if your living together and have your kids living together, I think the cat's kind of out of the bag." Catherine looked to Brass waiting for what he had to say about this.

"Hey, don't look at me, I say to each their own. But I think Patty and her kids have some explaining to do. I'm going to split them all up. Childrens services should be here soon for Danielle, so they can sit in with the kids when we question them. I'd like to have one of you in there with me when I question Patty." Brass barely got Patty's name out before Sara jumped in.

"I'll go." Sara realized she had jumped a little too quickly to go in and looked at Catherine waiting for her to start lecturing her. Mean while Brass, escorted the two teens out of the room they were in to their own separate room.

Catherine wanted to take Sara aside, but knew they would be talking after work and was just hoping she wasn't giving her too much leeway. She gave Sara a nod and headed into the room to watch through the one way mirror.


	3. Chapter 3

_I'm not sure if it's been a while or not. But here is another chapter. _

_I own nothing but my own characters... Dani is all mind :-)_

_I'd like to thank my 'darling' for making me feel like I can actually write. And for being there these past few weeks. It's been hard, but it'd of been a lot harder without you. I love you..._

Chapter 3

Sara entered the room first, taking a seat across from Patty. This was the first time she'd really got a good look at the woman. She'd say she was in her mid-forties. She had short dull brown hair, if she'd of met her on the street she might think she was a man for a minute. She was really skinny, no curves what-so-ever, and even with her sitting down she could tell she was probably a bit taller than herself.

Jim stayed by the door leaning against the wall. He was going to let Sara do her thing and would be there to back her up if needed.

"My name is Sara Sidle I'm a CSI, is it alright if I ask you a few questions?"

"I already told the guy over there what happened, can me and my children please go now, we've had a very long day and I'd like to get them somewhere so they can get some sleep."

"I'm afraid not. How long have you and Christine been involved?"

Patty was thrown when she heard the question. And looked at Sara seeing if she meant it the way it sounded.

"We found both your DNA along with Christine on her sheets. I'm not here to judge I just want to know how long you two were involved?" Sara said while showing pictures of the sheets where the fluids had been found along with the DNA evidence, not that Patty would know what it really meant other than they had evidence.

"We don't tell anyone, only our families know. And we've been together on and off again for a little over sixteen years. The kids all know not to tell anyone, we don't want people using it against us, so we keep it to ourselves."

"Earlier you said that Nathan had killed his mother and than killed himself, we know that's not true, so would you like to tell us what did happen?"

Patty's head snapped up knowing she'd been caught in the lie, now how far would she go to protect her son? She didn't say anything, so Sara pushed further. "We found your sons prints on the knife, his clothes were covered in blood. I get you were trying to protect your son. But now you can help him by telling us what really happened. Was he defending himself? Did Christine go at him first?"

"No, no, you have it all wrong. I killed her. It was me, I swear it wasn't my son. He came in after I had stabbed her, he told me to give him the knife, I thought he was going to get rid of it, I swear it was me."

"Then why did you stab her?" Sara had been thrown a bit, but recovered fast.

"She found Nate dead...she, she went nuts...she said she was going to kill all of us." Sara could tell she was lying about part of it, but telling the truth about part of it too. "She came after me with the knife and... and I got it from her... and she was fighting me for it... then she fell, she fell on it. It was an accident."

Sara glanced at the two way mirror hoping Catherine was catching the half truth-lie. She then turned to look at Brass, he nodded his head letting her know he caught it too. Sara got up then and walked out, Brass right after her and soon Catherine was joining them.

Sara grabbed her phone calling Greg. "Hey it's Sara, do you still have that knife... ok good can you look and check to make sure there are no prints under the ones you took off?... Yeah, the mother said she did it and that her son took the knife from her... you did? Ok we'll be there in a minute." She slipped the phone back in her pocket. "Greg just found two notes in Casandra's jeans."

Catherine and Sara both entered the lab Greg was working in, slipping on gloves as Greg handed them each a note.

Catherine started reading hers out loud first. " Mom, I'm sorry I had to do this. You have to understand that it's not your fault. I just can't take it anymore, and unless I do this, I wont be able to tell anyone. I got online to see what I could do, how I could tell people, how I could find help. But I found I there is a chance I will end up just like him. Hurt people the way he hurt me. Johnny started touching me a few months ago. When we went on vacation with his grandparents. I don't want to be like him mom. I don't want to be a monster like that. So, I have to do this. Dani is going to need you, so please make sure you are there for her. Don't tell her what happened to me, I don't want her doing something she might one day regret. She really does love you mom. You just have to give her a chance. I'm going to miss you mom, give Dani one last hug for me. …. I love you and I'm so sorry, Nathan."

Everyone just stood frozen in the room. Sara was the first to speak. "He wouldn't of ended up a monster, he would have been one of the good guys. He should've told someone, there should have been more help out there for him." Sara then looked down at the letter in her hand.

She cleared her throat before starting. "Dani, my big sister, my best friend, I'm sorry. I love you more than anyone or anything on this planet. You protected me from Patty," Sara's voice got even softer when she realized what was coming next. "You made sure she never ever hit me. You also made sure I had the childhood I know you never had. I loved playing sports, and having you there cheering me was the coolest thing. You would cheer louder for me than any of the other mothers did for their sons and you were just my big sister. Everyone always said how cool you were and how they wished they had a big sister like you. You always made sure I got to my games, or when I was in peewee games that there was a snack on my day. I'm sorry I have to do this. I know you knew something was wrong, but, I knew you couldn't help me. Please don't be mad at me. And please don't stop taking your pills. I know you need them. I know you took them for me, but please don't stop just because I wont be there anymore. I love you sister. Spladidle. Nate"

Sara sat the paper down and walked out of the lab heading for the locker room. She went to a corner in the room leaning against the wall before sliding down it, pulling her knees up against her chest resting her forehead on the tops of her knees, while tears trickled down her face._ That poor kid should never have died. None of this should've happened. His poor sister tried so hard to make his life good, now she's left with nothing but a note. If he'd of only told her, she'd of helped him. Gah! Why is this even bothering me. Get it together Sidle._ Sara leaned her head against the wall. Seeing Catherine leaning against one of the lockers . She hadn't even heard Catherine walk in.

"Sara sweetie, what's going on?" Catherine walked over and sat down next to Sara. Not too close, she knew better than to try and invade the younger woman's personal space.

Sara was trying to find a way out of talking to Catherine, but she knew she could only stall for so long. "I just haven't been sleeping well, and I got no sleep before shift, and it's just all too much."

"If you want you can go home, Greg and I can finish this one up." Sara started to sit up to argue with Catherine, not wanting to be told to go home. Catherine grabbed Sara's hand trying to connect with her, to make her see she wasn't trying to fight with her. "I didn't say you 'had' to go home, I said you could if you wanted. I get it though, you want to finish this one up. But you are still coming to my house for breakfast after shift." With that she let go of Sara's hand, stood up, brushed off her pants from sitting on the floor and headed for the door.

"Thanks, Cath." Was all Sara was able to mutter._ I thought these feelings were gone, why did she have to grab my hand, this is the last thing I need tonight. She was so close to me, she's always so close to me. Doesn't she see how much it hurts me to be that close to her. Then again it's not like she knows I had... blah, still have feelings for her. If I was smart I'd tell her just to get some distance between us. Now I have to go to her house after shift. Yay! Not._

Sara kept thinking while she got up and washed her face off. It was time for her to go finish up this case. She pulled her phone dialing Greg. "Hey, I need you to see if the SA kit is a match for Johnny, oh you already did, so what did it say. He did, ok, that should put him away. What about the knife... so the underlying print was Patty's, good we got her too. Alright, I've got a few questions for Patty, I'll find you when I 'm done." Slipping the phone back into her pocket she headed back to see Brass, she had some more questions for Patty. After filling him in on the suicide notes they both headed in, Catherine had spotted them going in and ducked into the room next to it to watch and listen as they interrogated Patty.

"We read the notes, we know what your son did. He was also a match to the DNA from Nathans sexual assault. With those two pieces of evidence your son will be looking at charges as an adult and be put behind bars for a while. We also found your prints on the knife, so we know you were telling the truth about that. Now why don't you tell us why you killed Christine? Was she going to turn your son in, is that why you did it?" Sara leaned back in her chair, satisfied with the look of disbelief on Patty's face.

Soon her face took on another look, one Sara had seen on many psychopaths faces before. "I knew her stupid fucking kids would ruin everything some day. I told her that. They are pathetic little nothings. And then she says that she's putting away my son" Patty stood up pounding her fist on the table "MY SON. Because her disgusting brat couldn't enjoy himself. Well fuck her, I should've killed her years ago. The only reason I kept her around was for the money she was getting from her ex-husbands death benefits. I should've smacked that little brat around like I did his sister, but no Dani, wouldn't let me lay a finger on him. You should arrest her, she threatened to kill me. I want her arrested now! Now!" Patty kept going on, but Sara had heard enough, she looked back and watched brass slap handcuffs on Patty before leaving the room.

Sara headed back to the lab Greg had all the evidence laid out in. Grabbing some gloves and one of the letters, she turned right around heading to Catherine's office.

"Hey slow down, we solved it. You got what you needed from Patty. Why are you still... upset?" Catherine really wasn't sure what Sara was at that moment.

"I want to go give Dani the letter her brother wrote... I figured she'll have to wear gloves, but she should get to read what her brother wanted to tell her." Sara opened the door and went over next to Catherine's desk flipping on the small lamp, before going over to sit in front of the now awake teen. Catherine went over to take a seat on the couch as Dani sat up to face Sara.

"Do you know what happened now?"

"We do, here" Sara handed her a pair of gloves. "Put these on, there is something we would like you to read."

Dani did as Sara asked her, and then took the piece of paper, reading the letter her brother had wrote her. The paper had blood stains all over it, something she noticed, and with reading the letter, seeing the blood, it all became all to real for her. Tears streamed down her face, her hands shaking, her head shaking no. Before she whispered "Spododdle my lil man" She handed the paper back to Sara, grabbed her back full of meds and pulled out two bottles, dumping one pill out of each into her hand, she tossed them in her mouth and grabbed the bottle of water before swallowing them and leaning back into the couch. She had become even paler then she was before, though neither Sara or Catherine thought that would've been possible.

"Spododdle?" Catherine asked.

"Yeah, we spent a lot of time together in the car and it can get a bit boring. So, one day I said 'Spladidle'. He looked at me like i'd lost my freakin mind. Which was the look I was going for. And I told him it means 'I love you'. He simple said, Spladidle back... and I told him, no, no, that's not right and then I told him that 'I love you too, is Spododdle'. He stopped playing that game with me a little over a year ago, Saying it was stupid."

Sara leaned forward putting her hand on the girls knee. Catherine noted this, Sara was never one to initiate contact. "Johnny had been... sexual abusing him. He was afraid he'd become like him." Sara's words were soft and she had a hard time saying them. She didn't want to cause Dani any more pain, but Sara knew in the end it'd help her to move on to know what happened. To know why. "You're mother found must of found him and the notes, she confronted Patty. She told Patty that she was turning Johnny in, when Patty snapped and killed her." Sara didn't have a chance to continue before the girl stood up heading for the door. Sara grabbed a hold of her arm stopping her. "I'm sorry, but you can't leave."

Dani ripped her arm out of Sara's hand. "I'm not leaving, I'm going to find Johnny. I want to see Johnny now!"

"I'm sorry but we can't let you see him."

"Look lady, I love this kid, he's like my little brother too. I just want to talk to him. I swear, please, I need to talk to him and to Case, please, I need this?"

"Ok, but you'll have to talk to them separately. And you wont have long. Only a couple minutes with each other them, and when I say you have to go, you have to go. Will you listen to me?" Sara had stepped closer to the girl looking into her eyes to make sure she truly only wanted to talk to Johnny. Dani nodded her head and Sara knew she just wanted to talk to him.

Catherine wasn't sure if this was a good idea, this whole night had been like that, but she was trying to give Sara some leeway. Trying to let her find her own way through this stuff.

When the women all walked into the room Johnny just looked down. Dani went over and sat across the table from him. She seemed very calm. "Did you hurt him?"

He looked up at her, you could see the hurt in his eyes. He gently started pleading with the girl he saw as his big sister. "Please, don't be mad Danielle, I swear I'll get help, I'm so sorry, I don't know why I did it, I, I... I swear if I'd of known he was going to..."

"What if he was going to kill himself you wouldn't of abused him! Is that what you are trying to say!" Dani's voice slowly increased as she spoke. "You knew how much he meant to me! You knew the only thing that mattered in my life was that he didn't get hurt! I thought it was your mother... you're fucking mother who I had to keep him safe from. But it was you. I loved you! I loved you like a fucking brother! You were my best friend! You and your sister was the only reason it was ok that my mother stayed with yours. You're sick twisted mother! She killed my mom! You.. you... You killed my brother. It was you that killed him!" Dani got up making her way to the boy she once thought of as a brother.

Sara saw her and headed for her just as she reached Johnny. "I will fucking kill you, you stupid, stupid freak!" She went to hit him, to tackle him, and Sara grabbed her arm, while Catherine grabbed her around the waist. Both women trying their best to pull the girl out of the room. "I swear to you, I will kill you before I die, you and your mother, neither one of you will ever hurt anyone every again!"

The whole time, all Johnny could do was cry and say that he was sorry. Over and over. Finally The two woman had the girl in the hall. Dani sunk down against the wall crying, Sara sliding down beside her taking the girl in her arms while she shook with the anger and grief pouring out of her. All Sara could do is pull her tighter and hold on to her. "It may not seem like it now, but I promise you it does get easier. I promise. Shhh it's ok." Sara hadn't even realized she had tears streaming down her cheek now.

Catherine couldn't believe what she was seeing. This wasn't the Sara she knew at all. She wasn't even sure of what to do. But she knew she needed to move them out from in the middle of the hallway. She leaned down to the two crying in front of her. She gently put her hand on one of each of their shoulders trying to pull them away a bit. "Come on girls lets go to my office."

Dani, heard what the other woman had said and started wiping away her tears and pulled herself away from Sara to stand up. And straighten herself out. Sara did the same. "No, no... I'm ok. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that. I swear, I don't know where that came from. I'd still really like to see Case?" The girl looked at both women, figuring she'd never get to see Casandra.

"Why don't we go back to my office for a bit and if you calm down and you still want to see her we'll see what we can do. That doesn't mean you'll get to, but it also doesn't mean you might either. Catherine offered.

All three of them headed back to her office, Catherine caught sight of social services, though the other two didn't. Knowing things were about to get even more interesting she went inside her office. Dani took her spot on the couch with Sara in the chair in front of her. Neither one of them saying much. So Catherine got to break the news. "Social Services are here so you wont be able to talk to Casandra today. But I will make sure we are updated about where she is going and then I'll make sure you get the information so you can get a hold of her."

"So, Case has to stay with social services? She is a good person, I know her mom and brother are two very fucked up people" Catherine took a step forward looking at her. This wasn't the age to start letting things slide, no matter how bad of a day the girl had had. "Sorry, I know language, anyway, can Case come stay with me? I know my friend wouldn't care. I swear I'll take care of her."

Sara stood up, this was the hard part. "You can't go to your friends house. You'll probably be sent to a group home for the day or weekend before being placed. Until you're eighteen, you have no choice in the matter... I'm really sorry Dani." Sara went over to Catherine's desk writing something down before handing it to the teen. "If you need anything, I don't care if it's for a ride, five dollars, or help with your homework, you call me, any time of the day or night." Sara sat down looking Dani in the eye's, "I mean it, you call and I will be there. Ok?"

"Is Danielle in here?" A lady in her forty's popped her head in the room. "Good I have the right room, Danielle, if you'll come with me I'll get you somewhere so you can get some sleep." The teen got up, grabbed her bag of medication and followed the lady out of the room. Too stunned and shocked to do or say anything.

Sara sat down on the couch, running her hand through her hair. "That was hard. It shouldn't of been. I've been there Cath... I've been that girl that has to leave her house and go to a group home. Group homes aren't a good place."

Catherine knew Sara had been in foster care but didn't know why, and knew this wasn't the place to talk. "Hey, we finished up our case. Why don't we head to my house and I'll fix you something to eat and we can have our conversation there?"

Yeah, I'll meet you at your house, I want to check on one thing and then I'll be there." Catherine wasn't sure if this was Sara's way of getting out of it. "Get that look off your face Cath, I'm coming over, I swear."

Sara left her office heading for the layout room. Catherine just sat down for a moment before getting up going to get her stuff to go home for the day.

Catching Greg, Sara stopped him from putting away all the evidence. "Greg I want to go over everything one more time, so i'll lock everything us.

"You sure Sara? I could stay and help if ya want?" Greg who was no longer the cute lab geek, but the hardened CSI offered.

"No, I'd rather do it on my own if that's ok?

Sara decided to look at all the rooms side by side. It was obvious that Nate and Dani had little in their rooms compared to the other two teen's. All of the rooms did seem to fit each teen in their own way. Nate's room was a light blue, with deep dark trim, very stylish, just like his sisters, except hers was a light purple. Casandra's and Johnny's weren't as stylish, but in stead were filled with entertainment pieces, where Nate and Dani didn't even have TV's in their rooms. Even the clothing was different. Casandra and Johnny both had huge closets full of designer clothing, while Nate and Dani had Walmart type clothing. Though she could see Dani not really caring about labels and perhaps Nate was too young to care about them as well.

As Sara finished putting everything away, she wished Dani was still around so she could ask her a few questions. Like how they looked so truly happy in the pictures. There was a lot more to all this then what meets the eye. Sara knew she could find out where they took her, but she knew she needed to let the case go. But there was one last thing she wanted to see.

Sara made her way to Archie's lab. "Hey, is the 3D program all ready to go?"

"Yeah but I thought you guys got a confession?"

"The video please, and I'd like to be alone." Sara wasn't asking she was demanding and Archie knew better than to get in her way. He simple cued it up. Showed her what to hit to start it and left.

Sara hit the button and was a bit taken back at first. It showed the room without any blood splatter and Christine standing in the middle. She still looked dead, but without the blood and knife wounds. Out of nowhere you could see the blood splatter start, and you could see the shape of the person stabbing Christine as the blood hit her. After the first two wounds, she sat down on the bed for a while, then she stood back up. Then she started getting stabbed, over and over, one by one each of the wounds would come to life, you could see her fight against what looked to be nothing... the nothing being where Patty had stood... you could see when she stopped fighting, when she had finally given up. When the blood loss had become too much.

Sara stood up from the computer. Horror stricken. The new 3D technology would be great in court, but it made it all far to real for her.

_I hope you all enjoyed the chapter... Please review... tell me if u hated it or loved it. I promise this will be a Cath/Sara story. And i'll bring a juicey chapter soon... promise._


	4. Chapter 4

I think took me a little longer to get out. I'm tryin to stay a head by a few chapters. But i've been distracted and am unsure where to go next with the story. I will try to update soon next time.

Thanks to those of you who reviewed... it inspires me to write more.

And for my darling... I love you.

I own none of the CSI stuff. Only my own characters.

A warning there will be talk of physical and sexual abuse... no detail, but figured I should let u know.

And on to the story... please enjoy and review.

Chapter 4

Walking out into the fresh morning air Catherine took a deep breath and headed to her car. Getting in she put her purse on the passenger side seat, buckled up and started the car. She backed out, hoping Sara would leave soon. She didn't like leaving her there, but there was still something Sara had left to do, and Catherine knew better than to try and dissuade her. While taking the routine path back to her house she finally let her thoughts about the day creep in.

_That case didn't even have the characteristics of domestic abuse. Maybe it was the girl. Danielle, she resembles Sara so much. She had the hard exterior going on. The first wall to keep people out, by keeping others from even trying to talk to her. That's how Sara has always been... well not always, she was happier before Natalie took her, when her and Grissom first started dating. But she's back in that closed off world again. _

_Gah, if Grissom wouldn't of asked me what was going on with her, I wouldn't of seen the Sara I used to be infatuated with. Sure we'd been hanging out after shift from time to time, grabbing dinner and doing 'girlie' things together, but it's not like we have deep conversations. And I so can't start looking at her that way again. What the hell is wrong with me! You've never even slept with another woman, Catherine. What the hell is it about Sara that makes me want to throw her down and kiss her senseless?_

Catherine pulled into her driveway, got out and headed in. Setting her key's and purse down in the entryway she made her way up to Lindsey's room. Quietly opening the door she saw her seventeen year old daughter asleep in her bed. She made her way over to her, sitting on the edge of the bed, careful to not wake her just yet. _Here I am worried about a woman, who I will never have a chance with instead of worrying about the precious time I've got left with my daughter. _She gently tucked a hair behind her baby girls ear. "Hey, Linds, wake up sweetie, it's time to start getting ready for school."

Lindsey slowly opened her eyes seeing her mother looking rather pathetically at her. "Awe, mom please don't go into the whole 'I'm going to miss you so much when you leave' speech again. I just started back to school a month ago. You still have like eleven or twelve months left before I leave. And I told you, I think I may just stay and go to UNLV, so it's not like I'll be that far away." With that the girl sat up, gave her mom a kiss and headed for a shower.

Catherine made her daughters bed before leaving the room, stopping in her own room to change before heading to the kitchen to start breakfast. She moved around her kitchen with ease, breakfast was one meal she couldn't screw up.

"Mom, oh are you cooking french toast?" Lindsey asked enthusiastically. Walking up behind her mom to get a closer look of what she was cooking.

"Yes, Sara is stopping by to talk and I promised her breakfast, so I thought I'd make your favorite. Want to set the table for the three of us? These are about done and Sara should... hopefully be coming soon."

Lindsey went to set the table leaving Catherine to her thoughts.

_I really hope Sara comes. And I really hope she'll actually talk to me. It'd be nice to know what goes on inside that beautiful mind of hers. Beautiful? I'm loosing it. Hmm... maybe I'm just drawn to her because she's so complex. That's probably it. And because she has that dark bad girl image going on. I should really be over the 'bad boy' phase, hell Linds should be in that phase by now... wait a second who is she dating.._

"Linds! Who did you go out with last Saturday? Was it that boy from the basketball team?"

Walking into the kitchen to see what on earth her mother was yapping about "Mom, seriously... I told you I'm not dating anyone. Yes I have a couple guy friends, but right now it's about enjoying my last year of school. And guys just complicate the hell out of things" Holding up her hand to stop the next word about to come out of her mothers mouth. "Yes, mom I know, language. You do realize I'm almost eighteen, right? And you said once I turned eighteen you'd let use my own digression when it came to my 'language'."

"Right, when you turn eighteen." Walking over to wrap her arms around her daughter and place a kiss on the side of cheek. "But you aren't there yet!" Just then the doorbell rang.

"That's got to be Sara, I'll get it mom, you finish breakfast, I've got to get to school soon." She bounced off to the front door.

"Hey Sara! Come on in, mom is cooking us up some french toast, she's just about done and I'd tell you to go say hi, but I'd like her to finish, so want to wait at the dining room table with me?"

"Sure. Aren't you a little cheery this morning? I thought teenagers were suppose to be overly angry and emotional trains?" Sara said with a little chuckle.

"Funny Sara, very funny. But you caught me on a good day. French toast is my favorite, plus I try to keep the emotions in check around guests."

Catherine walked in and sat a large plate filled with french toast and fresh strawberry's on the table. "Finally, food." Lindsey commented before digging in, ignoring the other two while she ate and text'd on her phone.

Sara was taken back by Catherine. She had on a pair of short shorts and a huge sweatshirt, with her hair up in a messy bun, pieces of her hair falling from it to frame her face. _She is so beautiful. No. No, you are with Grissom, you are not allowed to have thoughts like that about Catherine. _But she couldn't help it and she knew she was going to have to tell the strawberry blonde how she felt someday, but not today. Today other things needed to be discussed.

"I usually don't let her use the phone at the table, but she's in a good mood and I'm not in the mood to ruin it." The older woman commented bringing Sara back to reality and to the food in front of her.

Catherine and Sara both fixed their plates and started eating. Lindsey had put on milk and orange juice when she set the table, so everyone had everything they needed.

"This is really good Catherine. I must say I'm impressed."

"What, do you think I can't cook?"

"I happen to think you can do just about any, and everything. I just was surprised by the nutmeg and very impressed with it as well."

"Ok, as much fun as this is, I have to get to school." Lindsey got up, took her stuff to the kitchen and came back giving her mom a kiss on the cheek and nodding towards Sara. "You both enjoy the yummy breakfast. Mom, I love you and I'll see you after school. Sara, it was nice seeing you, next time I'll actually try to have a conversation with you." With that the girl was out the door.

"She is like a carbon copy of you, isn't she?"

"Oh, I hope not. It'd be nice if she skipped her bad boy phase and I'd really rather her not be a stripper."

"Bad boy phase, huh? I take it yours was pretty bad?"

"Well, let's just say Eddie wasn't the worse of them." Wanting to change the subject Catherine got up, gathering as much up in her hands as she could. "Would you like some coffee?"

Sara followed the older woman, helping her with the contents from the table. "Yeah, I'm going to need it... actually do you have a beer, I know you want to talk and it'd really help calm me and if I drink coffee I'll never fall asleep before shift."

"Beer I can do, and I think I'll join you, I'd like to be able to sleep at some point myself today and if I do coffee now, I'll be up until Linds gets home from school."

Each woman worked around the kitchen, putting stuff away and sitting the dirty dishes in the dishwasher. Catherine reached inside the fridge pulling out a beer for each of them, handing one to Sara, then lead them to the living room.

Sara sat down on the couch, while Catherine took her favorite chair that sat at the end of the couch next to the brunette. Sara loved the living room. It was warm and inviting. It had deep yellow walls, with beautiful wooden floors that had a huge oriental rug placed in the center. The couch was large and white, the kind you'd want to curl up in and stay forever.

Taking a large swig of her beer, Sara decided it was time to explain a few things to Catherine. She just hoped that Catherine was truly her friend. "I'm just going to start at the beginning and kind of go. It'd be easier for me if you wait till I'm done before you ask whatever questions you may have."

Catherine just nodded taking in the younger woman. Sara looked so small on the couch, it took everything in Catherine to not take her in her arms to help her through this.

"When I was little things weren't bad. They were actually pretty amazing. My parents owned a bed and breakfast, they were hippies back then. And from what I can remember they were really cool. Eventually their occasional pot use turned into an all the time thing, and when that wasn't enough they moved into some more hardcore drug usage. In the beginning they tried to hide it from me and my brother. But it got so bad that they had to close the B&B, then they had to get normal jobs. Which they both hated, so they would drink and do drugs. It wasn't bad until the B&B closed. I'm not sure if it was because other people were around that they didn't hit us or each other, but once it closed, it became the norm for us."

"It started out with them just hitting each other. They really would go at it, then my brother would try to get my dad off of mom, and then he'd start hitting my brother, while mom crawled away and eventually I tried to get dad off of Jason... my older brother. I actually thought broken bones, cigaret burns and beatings till you couldn't move were normal. When they had to take me to the hospital I was the one left explaining what I had done to hurt myself. I was suppose to tell them some lame excuse to keep them off of mom and dad's back."

"I don't know when he started raping mom, I think I knew he was doing it, but it was behind closed doors and I was too young to understand then, but know I do know. And then mom would smack my brother and me around because we were his offspring. At some point my brother left. He said he was going to come back for me, but he never did. And things only got worse after he left. I was the only one around they could blame all their problems on."

Sara paused to take another huge gulp of her beer, closing her eyes, before leaning forward and looking down at her feet. "One night when mom was at work Dad started hitting me really bad. Then he told me he'd show me how women are suppose to behave and please men. He took me in my room. After that night he'd come in whenever mom wasn't home. Then one night she came home early. I was screaming for her to help me, but she didn't even come in my room. I really thought she'd come in and save me. I still don't know why I thought that. After a few months she finally did come in. I was stupid enough to think it was because she wanted to stop him from hurting me."

"Well I was wrong. She started yelling at him about cheating on her, calling me a slut, telling me she was going to kill us. I didn't do anything to stop her. I think a part of me wanted her to actually kill me. I just sat there and watched her stab my father over and over. There was so much blood, all I could smell was the iron. And when she turned to come for me, I didn't move. That's when some police officer tackled her to the ground." Sara stopped again. Trying to compose herself.

Catherine couldn't believe what she had just heard. She knew Sara wasn't finished yet and it made her sick to know there was still more to come. She didn't want to interrupt her, but she wanted Sara to know she was here for her. So she gently placed her hand on Sara's knee, getting the younger woman to look up at her. "It's ok sweetie, take your time." Was all she could offer the tear streaked face looking back at her.

"After my mother killed my father I went into the system. I was stupid enough to believe that it'd be different. But even my first night in the group home was horrible. Some girl beat the hell out of me. Saying she was in charge of the place and not to make any waves. Foster homes weren't much better than when I lived with my parents. School got hard, I became the girl who's mother killed her father. So, I really had no friends. Except for one, Megan. We were both in the system. Both loners. We met at a house where we were both placed. We got messed up in drugs, and would do whatever we could to forget the pain. One night we were blitzed out of our minds and she asked me if I'd kill myself with her."

"Her reasoning at the time was so that we wouldn't go to hell alone. And I was so tired of my own life that I agreed. We decided that taking as many drugs as we could sounded like the best plan and so we did. I remember us crawling onto the bed and laying down holding onto one another, then the next thing I know I'm in an ambulance. I was still too out of it to really know what was going on at the time. It wasn't until a few days later that I really came out of it. I was in a hospital bed with my arms secured at my sides. I started freaking out and a nurse came in. Once I finally calmed down I asked her about Megan. As soon as I asked the nurse gave me the most pitiful look. If my hands would have been free I probably would've punched her for the look alone. But I couldn't. So she told me Megs was in a coma. That we had been found in the bed together by our foster mother. I really thought I was going to loose her. "

"It took over a month for her to come out of her coma. I was locked up in the mental ward and wasn't allowed to contact her. Once I was let out I was placed with a different foster family. They knew all about what I had done and wouldn't let me call or write Megs. They made sure I went to school and came home. Then they made me get a job. And those were the only three things I was allowed to do. I threw myself into school work. Knowing the only way my life was ever going to change, was if I made it change. I did finally get a hold of Megan, I asked her to meet up with me at the shop where I worked. She came but she was a mess. She was still doing the drugs. I was tempted to join her, but I couldn't forget the fear I had when I thought I'd lost her. So, instead I tried to get her help. She wouldn't listen to me. Finally she got tired of me trying to 'fix' her and took off. I still have no clue where she is, if she's even alive. But if it hadn't been for her, I'd never of made it as far as I have."

Sara took the last swig of her beer, sitting back and looking at Catherine. It was the first time she'd really looked at her and she could see steady tears leaking from her eyes. "Hey, no need to cry, I'm ok. But I do need another beer, can I grab one before you ask any questions."

Sara stood up to go for the kitchen, but was turned around and taken into a fierce hug. Catherine nuzzled into the crook of Sara's neck, holding on to her for dear life. "I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't be crying. It's just that you... you've been through so much. And I've been such a bitch to you! Sara, I am so sorry. I wish you didn't have to go through so much of this on your own."

Sara eased out of Catherine's embrace, needing the space and wanting a beer. "Cath, it's ok. Really. I'm going to grab you another beer too and I'll be right back. Ok?"

Catherine sat down on the couch. She had so many different thought's going through her mind and was having a hard time concentrating on just one. She finally started composing herself. She knew she had to be there for Sara, and being a mess wasn't going to help.

Sara walked back into the room, handing the redhead her beer and sitting on the other end of the couch. "I know it's hard to hear it all like that. But it's just easier for me to get it all out. You're only the third person I've told everything too. I thought I'd put most of it behind me, that I'd moved on, but ever since... since Natalie took me I'm back to having nightmares, back to being angry and sad and confused. I can't even talk to Gil about it."

"But he does know about your past? You've told him what you've told me?"

"No. He knows most of it, but not all of it. I didn't want him to be afraid of touching me. I didn't want that wall between us. Now though he doesn't understand why I shy away from his touch. It's not him, it's just that I can't handle it right now." Sara wasn't even sure why they were talking about Grissom. Things between them had been on hold for the last couple of months. Truth be told it wasn't Grissom she wanted, it wasn't Grissom who made her happy and calm. No, that would be Catherine. She knew she'd never have a chance with the older woman, which is why she kept perusing Grissom.

"He's worried Sara. I'm worried." Catherine had a hard time talking to her about Grissom. She knew it was jealousy. But she also knew it was stupid. Even so, she didn't want to keep talking about the two of them. "Why did today's case upset you so much?"

"I'm sure it has a lot to do with the lack of sleep. When I saw Dani standing there, it was like I was looking at myself when I was seventeen. Then the more we found out, the more I felt for the girl. I don't know why, I mean I have the feeling Patty abused her, but I just wish there was more I could do for her. Now she's probably at some group home, she'll spend the next year in the foster system. It's not right for her to have lost her mother and her brother and to now be stuck in those horrible homes." The more Sara thought about Dani being in a group home, the more upset she became.

"Sara, if she is anything like you, she will be ok. She'll make it and it's not like you can't check up on her. I told her I'd get her Casandra's number. Why don't you get it to her? You've been where she has been, you can help her through this."

Sara couldn't believe how 'normal' Catherine was being with her. Usually when someone hears any part of her past they put their kid gloves on. But not Catherine. "Why are you so nice to me? Why do you treat me like I'm normal?"

Catherine moved closer to Sara. Both women were sitting sideways on the couch facing one another. She put her hand on the younger woman's arm rubbing it. "Because you're my friend. Because I care about you. Because you are an amazing woman who has been to hell and back and even when you are going through so much, you are worried about this girl, who you didn't know before tonight. And Sara, you aren't normal. You far to amazing to be normal."

Sara smiled and took a large sip from her beer. Grabbing Catherine's hand she looked the other woman in the eyes. _I have to tell her. Even if she doesn't feel the same. If I don't I'll regret it. _

"I don't know how to say this, so I'm just going to say it. I like you." The words were barely a whisper coming from her lips, but Catherine heard her fine.

"Awe, sweetie, I like you too. You know you're the closest friend I have, that I'm not related too."

"No, Cath, that's not what I meant. What I mean is, I like, like you. I know it's probably weird after all that I just told you, but you make feel so safe."

At first Catherine was taken back for a second. _She likes me. She like, likes me. Wow, she actually likes me. Whoa, she's gay? I used to wonder, but then her and Gil... I thought she was still with him. Wait a minute... I'm not a lesbian. So, why am I happy about this... It doesn't matter I'm her superior, and, well there is no and. That's all there is to it!_

At first Sara thought she spotted a hint of happiness in Catherine's eyes, but it was gone before she could be sure.

"Sara, I don't know what to say. I'm very flattered..."

Sara let go of Catherine's hand, scooting away from her. "No, no, it's ok Cath, I just thought you should know, I wanted you to know how I feel. I knew the chance of you liking me like that was slim, but I still had to tell you." Sara felt a tear slide down her cheek, she quickly wiped it away and decided it was time to leave.

Catherine got up off of the couch grabbing a hold of Sara's arm turning her, so she was facing her. She gently wiped away the new tear sliding down the younger woman's face. "Sara, look, I like you. I like having you as a friend. And I know you are going through a lot right now. And I want to be there for you as much as I can, but I'm sorry, I can only be there as a friend. Can we stay friends at least?"

Sara finally decided to look into Catherine's eyes. "I'd like that. We've been doing a good job at the whole friends thing. I kind of thought you wouldn't want me in your life after I told you."

"No, I'd never want that. I'm a bit surprised, but like I said, you are going through a lot. Right now I'm sure you feel like I'm the only one who is there for you. Once you get back on track you'll see how messed up I am and be thankful we didn't take it beyond friendship."

Sara wasn't sure how to take that. _Is this just her way of letting me down easily or does she really feel she's that messed up. _Deciding to go with her first hunch, she put on a smile and acted like nothing had changed. " You're probably right. I'm really exhausted, so I'm going to head home to get in as much sleep as I can before shift." She moved towards the door, Catherine was right behind her. She turned around before opening the door. "Thanks for everything, I'm glad I have you in my life."

Catherine reached out taking the brunette into a hug. She wished she could of actually done something for Sara. If things were different she'd take her upstairs and hold the younger woman until she fell sleep in her arms. But things were complicated, and the hug was all she could give to Sara.

Sara tensed up at first, she liked Catherine and having her arms around her only made her more confused. _Why would she hug me when she knows I like her? I have got to stop reading into __things that aren't really there. _Sara pulled out of the embrace and left Catherine's house.

Catherine shut her door after she'd watched Sara drive away. Heading up stairs she decided to try and get some sleep. She couldn't help but think about everything that Sara had told her. But the one thing that kept repeating itself was the part where Sara had told her she liked her. She involuntary licked her lips when the thought of the younger woman kissing her came into her mind. She closed her eyes and fell asleep with images of the brunette playing in her head.

Meanwhile Sara had made it back to her apartment. She had grabbed a bottle of beer from her fridge before settling down on the couch. She knew she had to get over her thing for Catherine and just accept that all they would ever be was friends. Deciding that it was time for her to try and work on things with her and Gil, she closed her eyes before falling fast asleep.

_So what did you think of the chapter? Love it, hate it? What would you like to see happen next?_

_Please review and let me know... the more reviews, the quicker the update..._


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